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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 



WHAT IS EDUCATION? 



OF EMINENT MEN 



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WHAT IS EDUCATION? 



It has been held that education, according to its etymology, means a 
drawing out of the faculties of the mind, not a mere accumulation of 
things in the memory ; and this is probably substantially true ; but yet 
the etymology oi education is not, directly at least, cducere, but educare. 
Again, education has been distinguished from information ; which may 
well be done, as the word information is now used; but yet the word 
informare, at first, implied as fundamental an operation on the mind as 
educare; the forming and giving a defined form and scheme to a mere 
rude susceptibility of thought in the human mind. Again, we use the 
term learn, both of the teacher and the scholar. (Thus we have. Psalm 
cxix. 66 and 71, Learn me true understanding and knowledge; and I 
will learn thy laics.) But the German distinguishes these two aspects 
of the same fundamental notion by different forms — lehren and lernen; 
and in a more exact stage of English, one of these is replaced by another 
word, to teach; which, though it is not the representative of a word used 
in this sense in German, is connected with the German verb zeigen, to 
show, and zeichen, a sign or mark ; and thus ' directs us to the French 
and other daughters of the Latin language, in which the same notion is 
expressed by enseigner, iiisegnare, ensenar ; which come from the Latin 
insignire, and are connected with signum. "W". "Whewell. 

Education is the process of making individual men participators in the 
best attainments of the human mind in general : namely, in that which 
is most rational, true, beautiful, and good . . . the several steps by which 
man is admitted, from the sphere of his narrow individuality, into the 
great sphere of humanity ; by which, from being merely a conscious ani- 
mal, he becomes conscious of rationality ; by which, from being merely a 
creature of sense, he becomes a creature of intellect ; by which, from be- 
ing merely a seeker of pleasurable sensations, he becomes an admirer of 
what is beautiful ; by which, from being merely the slave of impulse, he 
becomes a reverencer of what is right and good. W. Whewell 

What is a man 
If his chief good and market of his time 
Be but to sleep and feed ? — a beast, no more. 
Sure, He that made us with such large discourse. 
Looking before and after, gave us not 
That capability and godlike reason 
To rust in us unused. Shakspeake 



2 APHORISMS ON EDUCATION. 

In the bringing up of youth, there are three special points — truth of 
rehgion, honesty of hving, and right order in learning. In which three 
ways, I pray God my poor childi-en may walk. 

AscHAM. Preface to Schoolmaster. 

Many examples may be put of the force of custom, both upon mind 
and body ; therefore, since custom is the principal magistrate of man's 
life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs. Certainly, 
custom is most perfect when it bcginneth in young years; this we call 
education, which is, in effect, but an early custom. So we see in lan- 
guages, the tone is more pliant to all expressions and sounds, the joints 
are more supple to all feats of activity and motions in youth than after- 
wards ; for it is true, the late learners can not so well take up the ply, 
except it be in some minds that have not suffered themselves to fix, but 
have kept themselves open and prepared to receive continual amend- 
ment, which is exceeding rare : but the force of custom, copulate and 
conjoined, and collegiate, is far greater ; for there example tcacheth, com- 
pany comforteth, emulation quickeneth, glory raiseth ; so as in such 
places the force of custom is in his exaltation. 

Lord Bacon. Essays. Custom and Education. 

I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to per- 
form justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private 
and public, of peace and war . . . inflamed with a study of learning, and 
the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave 
men, and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages. 

John Milton. 

The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regain- 
ing to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate 
him, to be like him, as we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of 
true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes up 
the highest perfection. John Milton. 

First, there must precede a way how to discern the natural inclina- 
tions and capacities of children. Secondly, next must ensue the culture 
and furnishment of the mind. Thirdly, the molding of behavior and 
decent forms. Fourthly, the tempering of affections. Fifthly, the quick- 
ening and exciting of observations and practical judgment. Sixthly, and 
the last in order, but the principal in value, being that which must knit 
and consolidate all the rest, is the timely instilling of conscientious prin- 
ciples and seeds of religion. Sik Henry "Walton. 

How great soever a genius may be, and how much soever he may ac- 
quire new light and heat, as he proceeds in his rapid course, certain it is, 
that he will never shine in his full luster, nor shed the full influence he 
is capable of, unless to his own experience he adds of other men and 
other ages. Bolingbroke. 



WHAT IS EDUCATION 1 3 

We are born under a law : it is our wisdom to find it out, and our 
safety to comply with it. Dk. Whichcote. 

Since the time that God did first proclaim the edicts of his law upon 
the world, heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice, and their 
labor hath been to do his will. " He made a law for the rain ;" he gave 
his " decree unto the sea, that the waters should not pass his command- 
ment." Now, if nature should intermit her course, and leave altogether, 
though it were for a while, the observation of her own laws, if these 
principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things in this 
lower world are made, should lose the qualities which they now have ; 
if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads, should loosen 
and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget their wonted mo- 
tions, and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it may 
happen ; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now, as a giant, doth 
run his unwearied course, should, as it were, through a languishing 
faintness, begin to stand, and to rest himself; if the moon should wander 
from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves 
by disordered and confused mixture, the winds breathe out their last 
gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth be defeated of her heavenly in- 
fluence, the fruits of the earth pine away, as children at the withered 
breasts of their mother no longer able to yield them relief; what would 
become of man himself, whom these things do now all serve ? See we 
not plainly, that obedience of creatures unto the law of nature is the stay 
of the whole world. 

Of law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bo- 
som of God, her voice the harmony of the world ; all things in heaven 
and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the 
greatest as not exempted from her power ; both angels, and men, and 
creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and man- 
ner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their 
peace and joy. Eichakd Hooker. 

The knowledge of Languages, Sciences, Histories, &c., is not innate to 
us ; it doth not of itself spring in our minds ; it is not any ways incident 
by chance, or infused by grace (except rarely by miracle) ; common ob- 
servation doth not produce it ; it can not be purchased at any rate, except 
by that for which, it was said of old, the gods sell all things, that is, for 
pains ; without which the best wit and the greatest capacity may not ren- 
der a man learned, as the best soil will not yield good fruit or grain, if 
they be not planted nor sown therein. Br. Barrow. 

Powers act but weakly and irregularly till they are hightened and 
perfected by their habits. Dr. South. 

As this life is a preparation for eternity, so is education a preparation 
for this life ; and that education alone is valuable which answers these 
great primary objects. .Bishop Short. 



4 APHORISMS ON EDUCATION. 

Forasmuch as all knowledge beginneth from experience, therefore also 
new experience is the beginning of new knowledge, and the increase of 
experience the beginning of the increase of knowledge. Whatsoever,, 
therefore, happeneth new to a man, giveth him matter of hope of know- 
ing somewhat that he knew not before. And this hope and expectation 
of future knowledge from any thing that happeneth new and strange, is 
that passion which we commonly call admiration ; and the same consid- 
ered as appetite, is called curiosity ; which is appetite of knowledge. * * 
And from this beginning is derived all philosophy, as astronomy from 
the admiration of the course of heaven; natural philosophy from the 
strange effects of the elements and other bodies. And from the degrees 
of curiosity, proceed also the degrees of knowledge among men. 

Thomas Hobbes. 

A sound mind in a sound body, is a short but full description of a 
happy state in this world. 

Of all the men we meet with, nine parts often are what they are, good 
or evil, useful or not, by their education. It is that which makes the 
great difference in mankind. The little, or almost insensible, impres- 
sions on our tender infancies, have very important and lasting conse- 
quences : and there it is, as in the fountains of some rivers where a 
gentle application of the hand tui'ns the flexible waters in channels, that 
make them take quite contrary courses; and by this little direction, 
given them at first, in the source, they receive different tendencies, and 
arrive at least at very remote and distant places. 

That which every gentleman, that takes any care of his education, de- 
sires for his son, is contained in these four things : Virtue, Wisdom, 
Good-breeding and Learning. I place virtue as the first and most neces- 
sary of these endowments that belong to a man or a gentleman, as abso- 
lutely requisite to make him valued and beloved by others, acceptable or 
tolerable to himself. Without that, I think, he will be happy neither in 
this nor the other world. 

It is virtue, direct virtue, which is the head and valuable part to be 
aimed at in education. All other considerations and accomplishments 
should give way, and be postponed, to this. This is the sohd and sub- 
stantial good, which tutors should not only read lectures, and talk of; 
but the labor and art of education should furnish the mind with, and 
fasten there, and never cease till the young man had a true relish of it, 
and placed his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in it. 

As the strength of the body lies chiefly in being able to endure hard- 
ships, so also does that of the mind. And the great principle and foun- 
dation of all virtue and worth lies in this, that a man is able to deny 
himself his own desires, cross his own inclinations, and purely follow 
what reason directs as best, though the appetite lean the other way. 

John Locke. Thoughts on Education. 

Tis education forms the common mind, 

Just as the twig is bent the tree is inclined. Pope. 



WHAT IS EDUCATION? 5 

The general principles of education are the same, or nearly the same in 
all ages, and at all times. They are fixed unalterably in the natural and 
moral constitution of man. They are to bo found in our aifections 
and passions, some of wjiich must be controlled and some cherished in 
every state of manners, and under every form of society. From the right 
apprehensions of them, we discover "the way in which a child ought to 
go," and by the right use of them "when he is young," we shall qualify 
him, " when old," for not departing from it. 

In promoting the happiness of our species, much is effected by author- 
ity of legal restraint, and much by public instruction from the pulpit. 
But education, in its large and proper sense, [of not merely the inculca- 
tion of moral precepts and religious doctrine, but a system of discipline 
applied to the hearts and lives of young persons,] may boast even of su- 
perior usefulness. It comes home directly to " the bosoms and business 
of" young persons, it rectifies every principle and controls every action ; 
it prevents their attention from being relaxed by amusement, dissipated 
by levity, or overwhelmed by vice ; it preserves them from falling a prey 
to the wicked examples of the world when they are in company, and from 
becoming slaves to their own turbulent appetites when they are in soli- 
tude. It is not occasional or desultory in its operation ; on the contrary, 
it heaps " line upon line, and precept upon precept ;" it binds the com- 
mands of religion, for a "sign upon the hands of young men, and front- 
lets between their eyes;" it is calculated to purify their desires and to 
regulate their conduct, when they " sit in the house, and when they walk 
in the way ;" when they " lie down in peace to take their rest," and when 
they "rise up " to "go forth to their labor." Dk. Park. 

What is the education of the generality of the world ? Reading a par- 
cel of books? No. Restraint of discipline, emulation, exami)les of virtue 
and justice, form the education of the world. Edmund Bukke. 

The heart of a nation comes by priests, by lawyers, by philosophers, 
by schools, by education, by the nurse's care, the mother's anxiety, the 
father's severe brow. It comes by letters, by silence, by every art, by 
sculpture, painting, and poetry ; by the song on war, on peace, on do- 
mestic virtue, on a beloved and magnanimous king ; by the Iliad, by the 
Odyssey, by tragedy, by comedy. It comes by sympathy, by love, by 
the marriage union, by friendship, generosity, meekness, temperance ; 
by virtue and example of virtue. It comes by sentiments of chivalry, by 
romance, by music, by decorations and magnificence of buildings ; by the 
culture of the body, by comfortable clothing, by fashions in dress, by 
luxury and commerce. It comes by the severity, the melancholy, the 
benignity of countenance ; by rules of politeness, ceremonies, formalities, 
solemnities. It comes by rights attendant on law, by religion, by the 
oath of office, by the venerable assembly, by the judge's procession and 
trumpets, by the disgrace and punishment of crimes, by public fasts, 
public prayer, by meditation, by the Bible, by the consecration of 
churches, by the sacred festival, by the cathedral's gloom and choir. 

Prof. Ramsden 



6 APHORISMS ON EDUCATION. 

I consider a human soul without education hke marble in the quarry, 
which shows none of its inherent beauties, until the skill of the polisher 
fetches out the colors, makes the surface shine, and discovers every orna- 
mental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it. 

Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, 
draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such 
helps, are never able to make their appearance. 

If my reader will give me leave to change the allusion so soon upon 
him, I shall make use of the same instance to illustrate the force of edu- 
cation, which Aristotle has brought to explain his doctrine of substantial 
forms, when he tells us that a statue lies hid in a block of marble ; and 
that the art of the statuary only clears away superfluous matter, and re- 
moves the rubbish. The figure is in the stone, and the sculptor only 
finds it. What sculpture is to the block of marble, education is to a hu- 
man soul. The philosopher, the saint or the hero, the wise, the good or 
the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a 
proper education might have disinterred, and have brought to light. * * 
Those who have had the advantages of a more liberal education, rise above 
one another by several different degrees of perfection. For to return to 
our statue in the block of marble, we see it sometimes only begun to be 
chipped, sometimes rough hewn, and but just sketched into a human 
figure ; sometimes we see the man appearing distinctly in all his limbs 
and features ; sometimes'we find the figure wrought up to great elegancy, 
but seldom meet with any to which the hand of a Phidias or a Praxiletes 
could not give several nice touches and finishings. 

Joseph Addison. 

Nothing is more absurd than the common notion of instruction ; as 
if science were to be poured into the mind like water into a cistern, that 
passively waits to receive all that comes. The growth of knowledge re- 
sembles the growth of fruit: however external causes may in some 
degree cooperate, it is the internal vigor and virtue of the tree that must 
ripen the juices to their just maturity. James Harris. Hermes. 

Human creatures, from the constitution of their nature, and the cir- 
cumstances in which they are placed, can not but acquire habits during 
their childhood, by the impressions which are given them and their own 
customary actions ; and long before they arrive at mature age these 
habits form a general settled character. And the observation of the 
text — " Train up a child in the way he should go ; and when he is old 
he will not depart from it " — that the most early habits are generally the 
most lasting, is likewise every one's observation. 

Bishop Butler. 

Organic structure, temperament, things affecting the senses or bodily 
functions, are as closely linked with a right play of the faculties, as the 
material and condition of an instrument of music with that wonderful 
result called melody. W. B. Clulow. 



WHAT IS EDUCATION 1 7 

Education does not commence with the alphabet; it begins with a 
mother's look, with a father's nod of approbation, or sign of reproof ; with 
a sister's gentle pressure of the hand ; a brother's noble act of forbear- 
ance ; with handful of flowers in green dells, or hills, and daisy meadows ; 
with birdsnest admired, but not touched ; with creeping ants and almost 
imperceptible emmets ; with humming bees, and glass bee-hives ; with 
pleasant walks in shady lands, and with thoughts devoted, in sweet and 
kindly tones and words, to nature, to beauty, to acts of benevolence, to 
deeds of virtue, and to the source of all good — to God himself. 

Dr. Ramsden. 

He [man] would look round upon the world without, and the thought 
would arise in his mind — " Where am I ?" He would contemplate him- 
self, his form so curious, his feelings so strange and various ; he would 
ask — " What am I ?" Then reflection would begin to stir within him, 
and reviewing the world without and within, and pondering upon the 
mysteiy of existence, he would exclaim — " W?iy am I ?" x\nd the re- 
plies to these three questions compose the entire circle of human kuowl 
edge, developed in its natural order. 

W. Cox. The Advocate, his Training. 

I believe, that what it is most honorable to know, it is also most profit- 
able to learn ; and that the science which it is the highest power to pos- 
sess, it is also the best exercise to acquire. 

And if this be so, the question as to what should be the material of 
education, becomes singularly simplified. It might be matter of dispute 
what processes have the greatest effect in developing the intellect ; but it 
can hardly be disputed what facts it is most advisable that a man enter- 
ing into life should accurately know. 

I believe, in brief, that he ought to know three things : 

First. Where he is. 

Secondly. Where he is going. 

Thirdly. What he had best do under those circumstances. 

First. Where he is. — That is to say, what sort of a world he has got 
into ; how large it is ; what kind of creatures live in it, and how ; what 
it is made of, and what may be made of it. 

Secondly. Where he is going. — That is to say, what chances or re- 
ports there are of any other world besides this ; what seems to be the 
nature of that other world ; and whether, for information respecting it, 
he had better consult the Bible, Koran, or Council of Trent. 

Thirdly. What he had best do under those circumstances. — That is 
to say, what kind of faculties he possesses ; what are the present state 
and wants of mankind ; what is his place in society ; and what are the 
readiest means in his power of attaining happiness and diffusing it. The 
man who knows these things, and who has had his will so subdued in 
the learning them, that he is ready to do what he knows he ought, I 
should call educated ; and the man who knows them not, uneducated, 
though he could talk all the tongues of Babel. Ruskin. 



8 APHORISMS ON EDUCATION. 

Education does not mean merely reading and writing, nor any degree, 
however considerable, of mere intellectual instruction. It is, in its larg- 
est sense, a process which extends from the commencement to the ter- 
mination of existence. A child comes into the world, and at once his 
education begins. Often at his birth the seeds of disease or deformity 
are sown in his constitution — and while he hangs at his mother's breast, 
he is imbibing impressions which will remain with him through Hfe. 
During the first period of infancy, the physical fiame expands and 
strengthens ; but its delicate structure is influenced for good or evil by 
all surrounding circumstances — cleanliness, light, air, food, warmth. 
By and by, the young being within shows itself more. The senses be- 
come quicker. The desires and affections assume a more definite shape. 
Every object which gives a sensation ; every desire gratified or denied ; 
every act, word, or look of afi'ection or of unkindness, has its efiect, 
sometimes slight and imperceptible, sometimes obvious and permanent, 
in building up the human being ; or, i-ather, in determining the direction 
in which it will shoot up and unfold itself. Through the different states 
of the infant, the child, the boy, the youth, the man, the development of 
his physical, intellectual, and moral nature goes on, the various circum- 
stances of his condition incessantly acting upon him — the hcalthfulness 
or unhealthfulness of the air he breathes ; the kind, and the sufficiency 
of his food and clothing ; the degree in which his physical powers are 
exerted ; the freedom with which his senses are allowed or encouraged 
to exercise themselves upon external objects ; the extent to which his 
faculties of remembering, comparing, reasoning, are tasked ; the sounds 
and sights of home ; the moral example of parents ; the discipline of 
school ; the nature and degree of his studies, rewards and punishments ; 
the personal qualities of his companions ; the opinions and practices of 
the society, juvenile and advanced, in which he moves; and the charac- 
ter of the public institutions under which he lives. The successive oper- 
ation of all these circumstances upon a human being from earliest 
childhood, constitutes his education ; — an education which does not ter- 
minate with the arrival of manhood, but continues through life, — which 
is itself, upon the concurrent testimony of revelation and reason, a state 
of probation or education for a subsequent and more glorious existence. 

John Lalok. Prize Es^say. 

The appropriate and attainable ends of a good education are the posses- 
sion of gentle and kindly sympathies ; the sense of self-respect and of the 
respect of fellow-men ; the free exercises of the intellectual faculties ; the 
gratification of a curiosity that " grows by what it feeds on," and yet 
finds food forever ; the power of regulating the habits and the business 
of hfe, so as to extract the greatest possible portion of comfort out of 
small means; the refining and tranquilizing enjoyment of the beautiful 
in nature and art, and the kindred perception of the beauty and nobility 
of virtue ; the strengthening consciousness of duty fulfilled, and, to 
crown all, " the peace which passeth all understanding." 

Sarah Austin. 



APHORISMS ON EDUCATION. 9 

The specific signification of Education has often been defined by means 
of the distinction between educere and educare. But this is not a suffi- 
cient basis for a precise definition. E. M. Arndt, in his '■'■Fragments on 
Huinan Culture"* considers educare to signify the artistic process or art 
of education, and thinks that educere is more correctly translated by " to 
brino- up," or " raise up ;" Tpc'qjsiv. Schmidtin one place considers educere 
to be the business of the mother, because she brings forth the child. t 
In another place, he says it means " to bring out of the family, into a 
larger sphere of life — into the world ;"t and in a third, that it means "to 
awaken, sot in activity and develop the inner higher faculties."! Educare 
is in the latter place taken to mean, on the contrary, " to bring the boy 
out of his animalized state of existence ; to change the animal man into 
the spiritual." 

Let us now consider whether German etymolog}- may not furnish a 
more definite answer. Zielien\ means to remove an}^ thing from one 
place to another, in such a way that the thing moved follows the power, 
and does it, also, in a steady manner, in contradistinction to throwing, 
striking, or carr^nng; and the thing moved is in a certain sense forced 
to go itself, even though it struggles not to do so. This radical word has 
gained a metaphorical meaning in the department discussed by this 
work, by its relation in meaning to the sense in which it is used to sig- 
nify the gardener's production of flowers from a bulb. Thus ziehen de- 
scribes the management of his assistants by a teacher; of his orchestra 
by a leader, (though the compound heranziehen is more precisely proper) ; 
and in these cases the meaning is still very nearly the same with that of 
the original word, for there is a drawing after himself by the leader, 
without however any reference to the means by which the influence is 
exerted. But when ziehen is used to denote the sort of training that 
is acquired by a wild young man who is sent to be a soldier, the most 
prominent idea is that of the means used ; the strenuous discipline ; and 
the design is not that he shall follow after his di.scipliner in any sense, 
but that by means of his receiving the action here denoted by ziehen, 
that is b^^ means of the passivity into which the constraint of his disci- 
pline brings him, he shall learn a right passivity, which is the negation 
of his previous wrong activity ; namely, by means of an obedience to 
persons, authorities, orders ; which obedience is the negation of his own 
undisciplined self-will. Aufziehen has a definite pedagogical meaning. 
It is the continuation of that careful protection from dangers to life, which 
is given to young infants ; and therefore the physical care of the child, 
up to the period when it can take care of itself; a duty which can after 
the death of the mother be performed, for instance, by a maid. Here 

* "Fragmente rider Menschenbildung-.'" 

t " Outline," &c., p. 40. "The child is brought foi-th into the Ught of day ; educitur, aa 
the proverb says, educit obsteirix, educat nutrix, inslituit paedagogus, docet magister." 

t lb., p. 221. § lb., p. 223. 

!l Ziehen corresponds very nearly to the Latin root word of " educate," viz., duco, to lead, 
draw, &c. 



^0 WHAT IS EDUt;ATION ? 

the animal side of the human being is most prominent; so that the woid 
may be used even of a calf; and when applied to persons, is usually 
spoken of orphaned or neglected children, who early come into the charge 
of strangers ; and whose education is considered chiefly from the point, 
of view of a beneficent life-sustained love. Brziehen, (educate,) on the 
contrary, according to the signification of the prefix er in manj' words, 
denotes the action o{ ziehen perfected ; carried out to its ultimate object; 
as including all sides of the subjects of its action ; complete within its 
proper scope. Erziehen (to educate) is therefore ziehen (to draw forth), 
and avfziehen (to bring up) in their metaphorical sense, but with the ad- 
ditional definite shade of meaning, that its action is carried out to its 
completed purpose, and applies to all sides of the object to be acted on. 
But this does not however fully express the actual extent of the idea. 
The best and most condensed definition that we can give is — Education 
is that intentional and systematic course of operations by adult persons 
upon the young, which is designed to raise the latter to whatever degree 
of individual excellence they are capable of by nature; and in whose 
attainment that divine purpose will be accomplished, for which every in- 
dividual man is destined by God for himself and for society ; and for 
which society also is destined in like manner. 

Schmidt's " Padagogisclie BnnjMojyddie.^^ 

Education is assistance directed to the fullest development of all the 
faculties of the man, and to an attainment the nearest possible of the end 
of his existence instituted by God. Thus education introduces nothing 
foreign into man, whereas instruction is concerned in the appropriation 
of a foreign material, of human knowledge generally, not the germs of 
which, but the capacit}^ to make his own, lies in man. 

Encylclopadie der PddagogiTc. 

Education is the act [i. e. the continuous and entire treatment and con- 
duct and exertion of influence] which places a child in the condition to 
fulfill as nearly as possible his destiny as a mortal and immortal being. 
It has for its aim the development of his faculties as a man, physical, in- 
tellectual, moral, social, and religious, in such proportion that through 
their harmonious action he will escape the punishments which await the 
bad, and become worthy of the rewards reserved for virtue. 

TnoMAS Braun, Cours de Pedagogic. 

Maintaining the health of the body ; training its powers ; developing 
and sharpening the natural understanding ; enlightening ideas relative to 
man and the world ; instructing and elevating the imagination, the sense 
of the beautiful, the noble, the great, the affecting, the refined, the pleas- 
ing; harmony of the bodily desires, and subjection of them to the moral 
laws of the reason ; moderation in the enjoyment of the good things of 
life, and equanimity in the want of them ; reference of all earthly being 
and action to the other side of the grave. 

The Author of The Impulses of Reason. 



WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 



11 



There is within every man a divine ideal, the type after which he was 
created, the germs of a perfect person, and it is the office of education to 
favor and direct these germs. Kant. 

Man is the only creature that requires to be educated : one generation 
educates another. The young, however, ought to be educated not in ac- 
cordance with the present standard of the human race, but with a view 
to a future and much meliorated condition of humanity. In short, the 
object of education ought to be, to develop in the individual all the per- 
fection of which he is capable. Kant. 

The art of education ought to aim at a standard of elevation superior 
to what ma}- happen to be the spirit of the time — for the child is to be 
educated not for the present merely. J. P. Richter. 

I use this term (education) as embracing every means which can be 
made to act upon the vegetative, atrective, and intellectual constitution 
of man, for the purpose of improving this his threefold nature. 

Being asked what I mean by human natuie ? I reply, that it is not 
body alone, nor mind alone, nor animal propensities, alTcctions, or pas- 
sions ; nor moral feelings, nor intellect ; neither is it organization in 
general, nor any system of the bodj", nor any particularity whatever ; 
but human nature, in the proper sense of the words, comprehends all the 
observable phenomena of life, from the moment of conception to that of 
death, both in the healthy and diseased state ; or in short, all the mani- 
festations both of the body and mind. 

G. Spukziieim. View of Education. 

Education may, in a certain sense, be said to be threefold — the educa- 
tion of nature, of man, and of circumstances. The internal development 
of our faculties and organs is the education of nature : the use which we 
are taught to make of this development is the education of man : and the 
acquisitions of our own experience respecting the objects which operate 
upon us is the education of circumstances. Rousseau. 

Education proposes to confer on man the highest improvement of 
which his body, his mind, and his soul, are capable, with a view to secure 
his well being, to fit him for society, and to prepare him for a better 
world. Hence, general education is divided into three branches, ph3'S- 
ical, intellectual, and moral, the latter including religious training. The 
first aims at health, strength and beauty ; the second at mental power 
and the acquisition of knowledge ; and the third at piety, justice, good- 
ness, and wisdom. C. Makcel. Langxuige. 

I call that education which embraces the culture li the whole man, 
with all his faculties — subjecting his senses, his understanding, and his 
passions to reason, to conscience, and to the evangelical laws of the Chris- 
tian revelation. De Fellenburg. 



12 



WHAT IS EDUCATION ? 



The first thing to be done in conducting the understanding is precisely 
the same as conducting the body, to give it regular and copious supplies 
of food, to prevent that atrophy and marasmus of mind, which comes on 
from giving it no new ideas. It is a mistake equally fatal to the memory, 
the imagination, the powers of reasoning, and to every faculty of the 
mind, to think too early that we can live upon our stock of understand- 
ing — that it is time to leave off business, and make use of the acquisitions 
we have already made, without troubling ourselves any further to add to 
them. It is no more possible for an idle man to keep together a certain 
stock of knowledge than it is possible to keep together a stock of ice ex- 
posed to the meridian sun. Every day destroys a fact, a relation, or an 
inference ; and the only method of preserving the bulk and value of the 
pile is by constantly adding to it. 

The fire of our minds must act and feed — upon the pure spirit of 
knowledge, or upon the foul dregs of polluting passions. Therefore, 
when I say, love knowledge with a great love, with a vehement love, 
with a love coeval with life, what do I say, but love innocence — love vir- 
tue — love purity of conduct — love that which will comfort you, adorn 
you, never quit you ; — which will open to you the kingdom of thought, 
and all the boundless regions of conception, as an asylum against the 
cruelty, the injustice, and the pain that may be your lot in the outer 
world — that which will make your motives habitually great and honora- 
ble, and light up in an instant a thousand noble disdains at the very 
thought of meanness and of fraud. Sidney Smith. 

There have been many men of an excellent mind and of great virtue 
without learning, merely by their extraordinary nature approaching to 
divine ; but yet, when to this extraordinary nature are added the advant- 
ages of i-egular discipline and education, then at last something remark- 
ably eminent and singularly great, is usually produced. Ciceko. 

Education in that sense in which it deserves the grave consideration 
and the earnest efforts of the community — is something more than the 
mere ability to read, write, and cipher ; and something more too than 
what is commonly meant by moral and intellectual culture. It is the 
fitting the individual man for fulfiUing his destinj^, of attaining to the 
end, accomplishing the purposes for which God hath made him. It 
divides itself into two branches: 1. That which answers the question, 
what is my destiny as an individual, and fits me for attaining it? and 
2dly, that which answers the question, what is the destiny of society, 
and fits me to cooperate in its attainment ? Individual education is gen- 
eral and special — education as a man, and education with reference to 
occupation or social position. Brownson. 

At the first it is no great matter liow much you learn, but hoic well you 
learn it. Erasmus. 

It [the understanding] grows like a tree under the unseen operations 
of time. Horace. 



WHAT IS EDUCATION? 



13 



The most essential objects of education are the two following — first, to 
cultivate all the various principles of our nature, both speculative and ac- 
tive, in such a manner as to bring them to the greatest perfection of 
which they are Siiscejitible ; and, secondly, by watching over the impres- 
sions and associations which the mind receives in early life, to secure it 
against the influence of prevailing errors, and, as far as possible, engage 
its prepossessions on the side of truth. 

To watch over the associations which they form in infancy ; to give 
them early habits of mental activit}^; to rouse their curiosity, and direct 
it to proper objects; to exercise their ingenuity' and invention; to culti- 
vate in their minds a turn for speculation, and, at the same time, preserve 
their attention alive to the objects around them ; to awaken their sensi- 
bilities to the beauties of nature, and to inspire them with a relish for 
intellectual enjoyment — these form but a part of the business of educa- 
tion. DUGALD StEWAKT. 

Education is that noble art which has the charge of training the igno- 
rance and imbecility of infancy into all the virtue, and power, and wisdom 
of mature manhood — of forming, of a creature, the frailest and feeblest 
which heaven has made, the intelligent and fearless sovereign of the 
whole animated creation, the interpreter and adorer, and almost the rep- 
resentative of the Divinity. Thomas Biiown. 

Education is a process calculated to qualify man to think, feel, and act 
in a manner most productive of happiness. It possesses three essen- 
tials — first, by early exercise to improve the powers and faculties, bodily 
and mental ; secondlj', to impart a knowledge of the nature and purposes 
of these powers and focultics ; and, thirdly, to convey as extensive a 
knowledge as possible of the nature of external beings and things, and 
the relation of these to the human constitution. J. Simpson. 

The paramount end of liberal study is the development of the student's 
mind, and knowledge is principally useful as a means of determining the 
faculties to that exercise through which this dev-elopment is accomplished. 
Self-activity is the indispensable condition of improvement ; and educa- 
tion is only education — that is, accomphshes its purposes, only by afford- 
ing objects and supplying incitements to this spontaneous exertion. 
Strictly speaking, every man must educate himself. 

Sir William Hamilton. Metaphysics. 

The great result of schooling is a mind with just vision to discern, 
with free force to do ; the grand schoolmaster is Practice. 

The first principle of human culture, the foundation-stone of all but 
false imaginary culture, is that men must before every other thing, be 
trained to do somewhat. Thus, and others only, the living Force of a 
new man can be awakened, enkindled, and purified into victorious clear- 
ness I Thomas Oarlyle. Essays. 



14 APHORISMS ON EDUCATION. 

"A virtuous and noble education " is whatever tends to train up to a 
healthy and graceful activity our mental and bodily powers, our affec- 
tions, manners, and habits. It is the business, of course, of all our lives, 
or, more properly, of the whole duration of our being.. But since im- 
pressions made early are the deepest and most lasting, that is, above all, 
education which tends in childhood and youth to form a manly, upright, 
and generous character, and thus to lay the foundation for a course of 
liberal and virtuous self-culture. 

Alonzo Potter. The School and Schoolmaster. 

Costly apparatus and splendid cabinets have no magical power to make 
scholars. As a man is, in all circumstances under God, the master of his 
own fortune, so is he the maker of his own mind. The Creator has so 
constituted the human intellect, that it can only grow by its own action ; 
and it will certainly and necessarily grow. Every man must therefore 
educate himself. His books and his teachers are but his helps ; the work 
is his. A man is not educated until he has the ability to summon, on 
an emergency, his mental powers in vigorous exercise to affect his pro- 
posed object. It is not the man who has seen the most, or read the most 
who can do this ; such an one is in danger of being borne down, like a 
beast of burden, by an overloaded mass of other men's thoughts. Nor is 
it the man who can boast merely of native vigor and capacity. The 
greatest of all the warriors who went to the siege of Troy, had not the 
preeminence because nature had given him strength, and he carried the 
largest bow ; but because self-discipline had taught him how to bend it. 

Daniel Webster. 

Education is development, not instruction merely — not knowledge, 
facts, rules — communicated by the teacher, but it is discipline, it is a 
waking up of the mind, a growth of the mind — growth by a healthy as- 
similation of wholesome aliment. It is an inspiring of the mind with a 
thirst for knowledge, growth, enlargement — and then a disciplining of its 
powers so far that it can go on to educate itself. It is the arousing of the 
child's mind to think, without thinking for it ; it is the awakening of its 
powers to observe, to remember, to reflect, to combine. It is not a culti- 
vation of the memory to the neglect of every thing else ; but is a calling 
forth of all the faculties into harmonious action. 

DAvm Page. Theory and Practice. 

Oh, woe to those who trample on the mind. 

That deathless thing ! They know not what they do. 

Nor what they deal with. Man, perchance, may bind 

The flower his step hath bruised ; or light anew 

The torch he quenches ; or to music wind 

Again the lyre-string from his touch that flew ; — 

But for the soul, oh, tremble, and beware 

To lay rude hands upon God's mysteries there ! 

Anonymous. 



WHAT IS EDUCATION 1 |5 

The true end of education, is to unfold and direct aright our wbult iiu- 
ture. Its office is to call forth power of every kind — power of thought, 
affection, will, and outward action ; power to observe, to reason, to judge, 
to contrive ; power to adopt good ends firmly, and to pursue them e3io- 
iently; power to govern ourselves, and to influence others; power to 
gain and tc spread happiness. Reading is but an instrument ; . educatioA 
is to teach its best use. The intellect was created, not to receive pas- 
sively a few words, dates, facts, but to be active for the acqijjsition of 
truth. Accordingly, education should labor to inspire a pro?6bn.d 'Icvc 
of truth, and to teach the processes of investigation. A sound 16jic, by 
which we mean the science or art which instructs us in the Ifrw's of>?ba' 
soning and evidence, in the true methods of inquiry, and in tUe-Vources 
of false judgments, is an essential part of a good education. .'Auci yet, 
how little is done to teach the right use of the intellect, in tlio common 
modes of training either rich or poor. As a general rule, the yOung are 
to be made, as far as possible, their own teachers— the disco%-aiers of 
truth — the interpreters of nature — the framers of science. They are to 
be helped to help themselves. They should be taught to observe and 
study the world in which they live, to trace the connections of events, to 
rise from particular facts to general principles, and then to apply these in 
explaining new phenomena. Such is a rapid outline of the intellectual 
education, which, as far as possible, should be given to all human beings ; 
and with this, moral education should go hand in hand. In proportion 
as the child gains knowledge, he should be taught how to use it well- 
how to turn it to the good of mankind. He should study the world as 
God's world, and as the sphere in which he is to form interesting connec- 
tions with his fellow-creatures. A spirit of humanity should be breathed 
into him from all his studies. In teaching geography, the physical and 
moral condition, the wants, advantages, and striking peculiarities of dif- 
ferent nations, and the relations of climate, seas, rivers, mountains, to 
their characters and pursuits, should be pointed out, so as to awaken an 
interest in man wherever he dwells. History should be constantly used 
to exercise the moral judgment of the young, to call forth sympathy with 
the fortunes of the human race, and to expose to indignation and abhor- 
rence that selfish ambition, that passion for dominion, which has so long 
deluged the earth with blood and woe. And not only should the excite- 
ment of just moral feeling be proposed in every study, the science of 
morals should form an important part of every child's instruction. One 
branch of ethics should be particularly insisted on by the government. 
Every school, established by law, should be specially bound to teach the 
duties of the citizen to the state, to unfold the principles of fi-ee institu- 
tions, and to train the young to an enlightened patriotism. 

W. E. Channing. Christian Uxamiiier, Nov., 1833. 

The object of the science of education is to render the mind the fittest 
possible instrument for discovering, applying, or obeying the laws under 
which God has placed the universe. Wayland. 



16 



APHORISMS ON EDUCATION. 



""WfeTegsi'd education as the formation of the character, physical, in- 
t6lle«tvfal,''iand moral; as the process by which our faculties are devel- 
oppplj. cultivated, and directed, and by which we are prepared for our 
stJrtlCn and employment, for usefulness and happiness, for time and 
eteilnitj^.' | . W. C. AVoodbridge. 

« Aii inte'lligent thinkers upon the subject now utterly discard and repu- 
(Ji4tc the'Wea that reading and writing, with a knowledge of accounts, 
cons{itKt(;' education. The lowest claim which any intelligent man now 
^^^(e"rs^i»;ts behalf is, that its domain extends over the threefold nature 
o'f'RTfan',' oyer his body, training it by the systematic and intelligent ob- 
Bervanee'^t those benign laws which secure health, impart strength and 
prolong; Jife ; over his intellect, invigorating the mind, replenishing it with 
knowledj,'e{ and cultivating all these tastes, which are allied to virtue ; 
and oVfef.ins moral and religious susceptibilities also, dethroning selfish- 
ness, ei)jth,rpning conscience, leading the affections outwardly in good-will 
towards man, and upward in gratitude, and reverence to God. 

Far above and beyond all special qualifications for special pursuits, is 
the importance of forming to usefulness and honor the capacities which 
are common to all mankind. The endowments that belong to all, are of 
far greater consequences than the peculiarities of any. The practical 
farmer, the ingenious mechanic, the talented artist, the upright legislator 
or judge, the accomplished teacher, are only modifications or varieties 
of the original 7nan. The man is the trunk ; occupations and profes- 
sions are only different qualities of the fruit it yields. The development 
of the common nature; the cultivation of the germs of intelligence, up- 
rightness, benevolence, truth that belong to all ; these are the principal, 
the aim, the end, — ^while special preparations for the field or the shop, 
for the forum or the desk, for the land or the sea, are but incidents. 

The great necessities of a race like ours, in a world like ours, are : a 
Body, grown from its elemental beginning, in health ; compacted with 
strength and vital Math activity in every part ; impassive to heat and 
cold, and victorious over the vicissitudes of seasons and zones ; not crip- 
pled by disease nor stricken down by early death ; not shrinking from 
bravest effort, but panting, like fleetest runner, less for the prize than for 
the joy of the race; and rejuvenant amid the frosts of age. A Mind, as 
strong for the immortal as is the body for the mortal life ; alike enlight- 
ened by the wisdom and beaconed by the errors of the past ; through 
intelligence of the laws of nature, guiding her elemental forces, as it 
directs the limbs of its own body through the nerves of motion, thus 
making alliance with the exhaustless forces of nature for its strength and 
clothing itself with her endless charms for its beaut}^ and, wherever it 
goes, carrying a sun in its hand with which to explore the realms of na- 
ture, and reveal her yet hidden truths. And then a Moral Nature, pre- 
siding like a divinity over the whole, banishing sorrow and pain, gather- 
ing in earthly joys and immortal hopes, and transfigured and rapt by the 
sovereign and sublime aspiration to know and do the will of God. 

Horace Mann. 



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